The celebrated Dutch group the Osiris Trio perform two late-romantic works on this CD: Arnold Schoenberg’s acknowledged masterpiece ‘Verklärte Nacht’, and the rarely-heard Piano Trio by one of his followers, Karl Weigl. The Osiris Trio was formed in 1988, and since then the ensemble has garnered an enviable reputation and toured five continents. The trio has won a number of Dutch awards, including the Philip Morris Finest Selection and Annie Bosboom prizes. Since 2001 it has receive financial support from the Dutch Ministry of Culture. The Osiris Trio’s discography encompasses two centuries of repertoire and includes song cycles and a highly-regarded recording of Messiaen’s Quatuor Pour la Fin du Temps. The group’s most recent release, Melodies of Love and Death (CC72373), was released on Challenge Classics in 2011. Arnold Schoenberg’s ‘Verklärte Nacht’ uses as its inspiration a poem by Richard Dehmel, and follows the text as if it were a Wagnerian opera with its associated leitmotifs and transformations. It was originally written in 1899 for String Sextet, but the composer himself produced an arrangement for string orchestra in 1917. The version for piano trio featured here was made in 1932 by one of Schoenberg’s circle, Eduard Steuermann. Karl Weigl was another member of the group of composers that were linked to Schoenberg. His Piano Trio is a large-scale, sometimes outspokenly symphonic work. Weigl uses classical forms to create a dense web of thematic relationships both within the individual movements and between them.
